Toronto Film Festival

Stars Show Us Their Al Pacino Impressions

Which Toronto International Film Festival star got the other celebrities all hot and bothered? Screen legend Al Pacino, naturally. Whether discussing their favorite Pacino roles (Dog Day Afternoon is a clear winner), or busting out a variety of Pacino impressions, everyone from Reese Witherspoon to Jon Stewart to Keira Knightley to Chris Evans lit up when asked to talk Pacino. Fans of comedy know that Pacino is one of the most imitated actors in Hollywood, second only to Christopher Walken (who gets a brief nod in this video). So which of the TIFF stars does the best Pacino? Between all the hoo-ahs, grimaces, and classic movie lines in the video above, it’s hard to choose. (Though comedian Nick Kroll is automatically disqualified. You’ll see why.) But according to Pacino himself (who doesn’t even like Kevin Spacey’s famous impression), Johnny Depp is the actor to beat when it comes to doing Pacino.

Pay a visit to the V.F. video hub for many, many more conversations between Krista Smith and the Toronto International Film Festival’s biggest stars.

Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game

Brit Marling & Hailee Steinfeld, The Keeping Room

The co-stars says their movie most certainly passes the famous Bechdel Test, so much so that they can’t remember any scene in which their characters talked about a man. Watch the whole interview here.

Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

When he met Stephen Hawking, whom he plays in The Theory of Everything, Redmayne says, “I suffer from verbal diarrhea, and I basically just kind of spewed forth information about him, to him. And he’s like yeah dude, I know, I’m him.” Watch the whole interview here.

Abigail Spencer, This is Where I Leave You

Spencer was delighted to work with the huge ensemble cast of This Is Where I Leave You, but none more than Jane Fonda. “I’m going to come up with a book called Fonda-isms,” Spencer says. Watch the whole interview here.

Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game

Brit Marling & Hailee Steinfeld, The Keeping Room

The co-stars says their movie most certainly passes the famous Bechdel Test, so much so that they can’t remember any scene in which their characters talked about a man. Watch the whole interview here.

Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

When he met Stephen Hawking, whom he plays in The Theory of Everything, Redmayne says, “I suffer from verbal diarrhea, and I basically just kind of spewed forth information about him, to him. And he’s like yeah dude, I know, I’m him.” Watch the whole interview here.

Abigail Spencer, This is Where I Leave You

Spencer was delighted to work with the huge ensemble cast of This Is Where I Leave You, but none more than Jane Fonda. “I’m going to come up with a book called Fonda-isms,” Spencer says. Watch the whole interview here.

Elizabeth Banks, Love & Mercy

Elizabeth Banks dresses to kill, even when she stepped behind the camera to direct Pitch Perfect 2. “I got a lot of props, I tried to wear dresses. It worked out sometimes! Watch the whole interview here.

Jessica Chastain, Miss Julie

Chastain starred for director Al Pacino in a stage production of Oscar Wilde’s Salome at the very beginning of her career. Asked about her favorite Pacino movie, she said, “Serpico is the movie that I watch and I’m like, ‘Oh, I want to date Serpico.’ He’s so dreamy in that movie!” Watch the whole interview here.

Ethan Hawke, Good Kill

Hawke calls 1989’s Dead Poets Society “the first time I ever feel like I acted in my life,” and credits Robin Williams with some of that inspiration. Watch the whole interview here.

Robert Downey Jr., The Judge

Reese Witherspoon, Wild

As the only person onscreen for much of Wild, Witherspoon says “You worry that you’re not interesting enough to sustain people’s interests for two hours without talking a lot.” Watch the whole interview here.

Andrew Garfield, 99 Homes

What Garfield does with that mountain man beard in our video interview is best left undescribed; you must see it for yourself. Watch the whole interview here.

Ben Schnetzer, Pride and The Riot Club

While living abraod and filming Pride and The Riot Club, Schnetzer says, “I kind of was under the impression, ‘I’m going to move to England, I’m going to be all European.’ And then I’ve never felt more American.” Watch the whole interview here.

Adam Driver, Hungry Hearts

Driver isn’t so sure he’ll have a Star Wars action figure. “Maybe more like Jello cutout, I would say. That would probably be more accurate, I think.” Watch the whole interview here.

Ansel Elgort, Men, Women & Children

The newly minted teen heartthrob still can’t say no to taking photos with fans: “Because I feel like an asshole then. I feel terrible!” Watch the whole interview here.

Channing Tatum, Foxcatcher

Tatum has played action heroes and even a stripper, but the physical challenge of wrestling in Foxcatcher was something entirely different, and brutal. “I don’t ever need to do it again, I can promise you that,” he says. Watch the whole interview here.

Jon Stewart and Gael García Bernal, Rosewater

Bernal says he received “a very cryptic message” that Stewart wanted him for the lead role in Rosewater, and admits, “It’s pretty strange to be offered an Iranian part.” Watch the whole interview here.

Steve Carell, Foxcatcher

Though Carell plays a murderer in Foxcatcher, he insists, “I didn’t want to vilify him. I thought, here’s just a human being.” Watch the whole interview here.

Jason Bateman, This is Where I Leave You

Bateman was so moved by co-star Jane Fonda during shooting that he says, “Shawn Levy, the director, had to tell me to shut the faucet off a couple of times and get it together. ‘I need a couple of takes without you crying, you big bitch. Let’s go!’” Watch the whole interview here.

Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game

Anthony Mackie, Shelter

Mackie may have looked amazing as Falcon in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but it didn’t always seem that way on set. “Every time I put the wings on, like ‘I feel so stupid right now. I bet Robert Downey Jr. don’t have stupid little wings!’ ” Watch the whole interview here.

Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything

Jones plays Stephen Hawking’s wife, Jane, about whom she says, ”I think sometimes she felt that the kind of support and commitment she had given him hadn’t been returned.” Watch the whole interview here.

Al Pacino, The Humbling and Manglehorn

“They talked about Scarface being violent—you should see these video games,” Pacino said of the games his children like to play.

Sam Claflin, The Riot Club

Thought Claflin was part of 2013’s biggest film, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, he swears, “Nothing has changed. I’m exactly the same person, everything is exactly the same.” Watch the whole interview here.

Miles Teller, Whiplash

After earning a whole new fanbase through starring in Divergent, Teller says he’s created a nickname for his fans: “Peter’s Princesses.” Watch the whole interview here.

Michael Shannon, 99 Homes

The Boardwalk Empire star seems as surprised as anyone to be part of the show’s final season: “I guess everybody figured they were gonna die at some point.” Watch the whole interview here.

Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher

Greta Gerwig, The Humbling and Eden

Whenever I get my hair and makeup done, I just want to take a bunch of selfies, because I’m like, ‘I look so good,’” says Gerwig. “It really is an improvement!” Watch the whole interview here.

Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany, Shelter

“The deal was, she would give me everything she had to give and I would protect her performance,” Bettany said of directing Connelly, his wife, in Shelter.Watch the whole interview here.

Dominic West, Pride

“My image was sort of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever,” West says of what he imagined while filming dancing scenes for Pride. “And then I saw the film and I just looked like this old dad dancing.” Watch the whole interview here.

Jennifer Garner, Men, Women & Children

“Polariods—that’s what we do at the Affleck house,” Garner jokes in reference to the dangers of digital imagery in a social-media age. “We have a stack of sexy Polariods.” Watch the whole interview here.